“The Sky This Week” appears every Tuesday. It is written by Ian Clarke, Director of the Hatter Planetarium at Gettysburg College. The planetarium offers regular educational presentations about the stars and the skies; there’s something for early elementary through adults. Public shows have concluded for the academic year, but we are still accepting field trip requests for the summer!
If you look west as it’s getting dark this week, you’ll be sure to notice Venus. It’s brighter than any natural object in the sky except the sun and moon. If you look just above Venus, you will see much fainter Mars; if the sky is dark enough, you’ll be able to detect its red color. Mars can get almost as bright as Venus, so why is it so much fainter now? Have a look at the illustration showing the current location of the planets in the solar system. Mars is on the far side of its orbit, much farther from us than Venus. There is, in fact, no way for Mars to get in between Earth and Venus, so anytime you see it near Venus in the sky, it will be much farther away.
Keep an eye on Venus over the next few weeks. It reaches its brightest on July 7, but at the same time, it’s dropping closer to the sunset each night. By the end of July, Venus will be too close to the sun to be easily seen. Later it will emerge into the morning sky for late summer and fall.
Ian Clarke is the director of the Hatter Planetarium at Gettysburg College. In addition he has taught introductory astronomy labs and first-year writing there for over 30 years (not necessarily all at the same time). He was educated at Biglerville High School, the University of Virginia, and the University of Iowa. He lives in Gettysburg.